My name is Iqra and I belong to a small remote village Ilyas Abrejo, in district Matiari, Sindh. The total population of our village is about 2500 and most of the people in our village work either as laborer or agricultural labor to earn their living. There are 02 government primary boy’s and girl’s schools in our village but other basic facilities are not available in the village. In 2003, HANDS with the financial support of Aga Khan Foundation, started an Early Childhood Education (ECE) program for children 3 to 5 years of age as part of Early Childhood Development (ECD).
The project was named RCC – Releasing Confidence and Creativity and it was initiated in Government Primary schools in the village. A separate well equipped ECE classroom was established in each of the target school and Early Childhood Education program was started along with appointment of a trained certified teacher for ECE class. Prior to this program there was no concept of education of children of 3 – 5 years’ age group.
At the beginning of the program, about 30 children got registered in the ECE class and I was also among one of them. Due to efforts and hard work of the teacher and a good learning environment of the school, I was motivated to further continue my education. After passing the primary classes I got admission in high school in the nearby village. Keeping in view, my hard work and interest in studies, my parents encouraged me for higher education and I continued.
Now I am student of LLB part 11 and intend to continue InshAllah with same zest and fervor. Looking at my progress in education, other girls in the village were also motivated and now there are several girls who are getting higher education from different institutes. We hope that this trend will continue in future as well and the girls will keep on getting higher education in our remote villages.
I owe my success in the field of education to my parents’ prayers and HANDS. I pray that in future HANDS and other such organizations will continue to provide such services in the remote areas of not just Sindh but all over Pakistan. This will enable girls like me to work and play our role in the development of our country along with our fellow brothers.
Total 123,738 students, 3796 teachers and 5754 School Management Committee members have been benefitted through 959 schools under the best practice service models of HANDS Education & Literacy Program.
HANDS ECD Achievements
The following are major achievements of HANDS Early Childhood Education & Development Program.
- Established 504 ECED classes in 168 Government & Community schools of Sindh
- Trained 654 Government & Community teachers on ECED
- Trained 168 SMCs on school management and prepared school development and improvement plans with focus on ECED implementation in the schools.
- Established 168 play areas for students in primary schools.
- Impact Assessment of learners/Students of Education Program.
- During the academic session of 2018-19, the average reported attendance of students was 80%. The success rate of student’s in public schools for girls was 89.6% while for the girls and boys 72%, while in private schools, the success rate of girls was 83.5% and boys was 81.3% which was marked good progress as per compare with previous years.